Tuesday, March 12, 2013

I
have seen this vegetable at the grocery store many times, and I will get close to grab
a few when I see the folds and get nervous and walk away. Till finally this
lent season, I decided to research on this scary looking vegetable, and take a
leap of faith and give it a try!

Well,
this dish, though totally experimental, turned out to be very good. It goes especially
well with chapathis. Other variation to try of this dish is to add carrots, and
potatoes to it, and another one is to add ground coconut (instead of ground cilantro
as I added in the recipe below). Now that this vegetable is more
“approachable”, I will be trying them out as well!

Ingredients

Chayote – 4

Green chillies
– 2

Turmeric – ¼ tspn

Urad dal,
mustard seeds, cumin – 1 tspn each

Curry leaves –
5

Dry red
chillies - 2

Cilantro
-2 cups, packed

Method

Best way to
cut chayote is along the folds or ridges, and carve out the seed from
inside. Lightly peel the skin, and chop it into cubes.

Heat some oil
in a pan, add urad, cumin, mustard, and dry red chillies. Once the mustard
seeds splutter, add the curry leaves.

After around
10 seconds, add chayote cubes. Mix this up, and let it cook (closed) for
about 15-20 mins on medium heat till soft.

Grind
cilantro, and green chillies together with little water. Add this to the
chayote, and it is cook for additional 10 mins.

If you are
using dry chick peas, and it has been soaked for 5-6 hrs. Then cook it in
a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles (do not open yet, let is cool off).
Keep aside.

Coarsely chop
the ginger, and garlic, and grind it.

Heat oil in a pan,
add the ground ginger-garlic paste. Once the raw smell is gone, add the
sliced onion. Add salt, and cook it till it is translucent, and slightly
brown.

Add the
masalas listed above in ingredients list 8, (if you think it is too dry
after mixing, add 1-2 tbspn of oil), also add ghee. Once the raw smell of
the masalas is gone, around 5 mins, add the chopped tomato, and cilantro.
Mix it all in.

Then add the
tomato pureed to this mixture. Let this cook for another 5-6 minutes.